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Thanks much for all the help. The specific options will make searching a lot easier. I'll see if I can bump the budget a bit. How many hours are too many? Should I try to stay under 1000 or does it depend?

In my mind comfort level with hours is a personal thing... i have a buddy that has an 02 vlx wakesetter that just rolled over 900 hours... i wouldn't hesitate to snag it because i know how its been taken care of. Really if buying used id prefer to stay under 400 hours but thats just me... and of course the lower your budget the tougher that is...

In my mind comfort level with hours is a personal thing... i have a buddy that has an 02 vlx wakesetter that just rolled over 900 hours... i wouldn't hesitate to snag it because i know how its been taken care of. Really if buying used id prefer to stay under 400 hours but thats just me...

I agree it's all preference but 400 hours is a very low threshold for a boat on a budget. A ski/wakeboard boat that gets used more than just once a weekend can easily get over 100 hours per year - so that could be a 4 year old boat.

I heard some say that 1000 hours was similar to 100k miles on a car but I think this is too conservative. Our truck has 200k miles and 5000 hours on it (35 mph is probably a reasonable guess for the lifetime average of a car). Obviously you run a wake/ski boat harder than a truck driving around town, but how much? My 1000 hour = 100k miles rule would say 2.5 times the wear, maybe it should be more like 1500 hours = 100k miles. My old boat has 1200 hours on it and runs great, burns no oil and generally acts like a truck with less than 100k miles.

If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about hours. Just let the overall wear on the boat tell you how it has been maintained. For $20k, you're likely to be looking early 2000's, 500-750 hours and I would have no problem with that. (I'd guess that new interior vinyl would cost more than an engine rebuild).

I will probably be putting my '02 Moomba Mobius up for sale here soon as I have another boat already and my wife thinks that thee boats is too many (kind of selfish if you ask me).

The boat is an '02 with a little over 200 hours, has all new stereo, with six in-boats and four tower Kickers, and a sub.

The Bimini and Evolution cover are just over a year old and I had them custom made. The interior is in great shape. The only bad interior area was the rear deck covers were coming apart at the seams so I had them replaced.

The swim step has a new custom made SeaDek cover, the trailer has new tires and a Fulton F2 jack

I also added the Stargazer Perfect Pass and an onboard charger and dual batteries.

Let me know if you are interested, I will be asking $22k. The boat is in Northern California (Napa ain't a bad place as we say) and I have photos.

I bought this boat and went through the upgrade-itis as I was planning on keeping it for a long time. I love the wake that it throws. But last year I came across a Tige RZ4 that I couldn't pass up (shhh! don't tell anyone here!!)